Preserving cultural knowledge
A new series of books on traditional Tlingit carving offers an innovative approach to learning the art, by providing a detailed description of the techniques in printed form.

Making fun for the whole family
Two-time Grammy award-winning songwriter and storyteller Bill Harley might be considered by some as a children's performer, but he gears his shows toward the whole family.

Search opens for senior Alaska poets
The 18th annual National Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition is now underway across the country, a contest open to American poets age 50 and older.

Coffee & Collections presents 'Juneau's History Detectives'
This month's Coffee & Collections presentation at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum will feature Curator of Collections and Exhibits Addison Field, who will lead audiences in an exploration of the mysteries of history in "Juneau's History Detectives." Beginning at 10:30 a.m. this Saturday. Field will uncover some of the strange objects held in the museum's vaults and share tales that begin with "Upon closer inspection..." He will also welcome suggestions about the mysteries that are still deemed "head scratchers."

Daybreakers: If you can stand the gore, it ain't bad
W hat if?What if there was an outbreak, presumably starting from someone getting bitten by a vampire bat, and suddenly people were turning into vampires? What if that outbreak became so rampant that before too long the army, the government, schools, car dealers, television news anchors, newspaper publishers and hospitals were made up of vampires? What if overnight, human beings were declared an enemy of the state and hunted by the government in order to farm them for blood?

Last chance
January 15 marks the deadline for several big events around town. Here's a look at what not to miss.

Fallen tree knocks out power line near Thane
A city-wide power outage Wednesday afternoon was caused by a tree falling into one of two large power lines near Thane Road, an Alaska Electric Light & Power Co. spokesperson said.

Photo: Frozen in time
Icicles hang from the clock Wednesday at the corner of Franklin and Front streets. Weather forecasts call for a warming trend to bring rain during the rest of the week.

City prepares to tap rainy day fund
The Juneau Assembly established a willingness at a Finance Committee meeting Wednesday to dig into the city's $9.3 million "rainy day fund" and to use tobacco tax revenue to address the city's looming budget shortfall, but said it's too early to know exactly how much.

Photo: Spell check
Seventh-grader Brayden Wrightson, left, is congratulated by seventh-grader Quinn White, right, and sixth-grader Forest Kobayaski, center, after Wrightson won the spelling beecontest at Dzantik'i Heeni Middle School on Thursday. Both Wrightson and second-place White will compete in the district-wide spelling bee next month.

New board may manage pools
Some members of the Dimond Park Pool Task Force and other community members are advocating for a new "Juneau Pool Systems Board" that would operate the Augustus Brown and Dimond Park swimming pools.

Photo: Electric snow removal
Dave Sturdevant uses an electric snowblower to remove snow from his driveway Wednesday on Evergreen Avenue. "This is a lot lighter than a gas-powered blower," Sturdevant said. "And better on the back than shoveling snow into a berm and repeating."

Sometimes, the earth is cruel
Sometimes, the earth is cruel. That is ultimately the fundamental lesson here, as children wail, families sleep out of doors, and the dead lie unclaimed in the rubble that once was Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Forcing high school students into college isn't just wrong, it's dumb
One repeated theme in President Obama's education agenda is that he wants the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. As he put it in an address to a joint session of Congress, "We expect all our children not only to graduate from high school but to graduate from college and get a good-paying job."

Obama, Bernanke need miracles
If 2009 was a year for massive government intervention in the private economy and a full-court press on health-care reform, 2010 will be a time for weaning the nation from life support and evaluating what worked and what didn't, and hopefully doing less of the second.

Healthy school lunches could slow obesity
It's not a bully stealing their lunch money. It's the recession. In a clear illustration of the economy's effect on families, registration for free school lunch and food stamps has hit the ceiling.

Out & About
 Beginning Jan. 1, Out & About information must be submitted online at http://calendar.juneauempire.com. Submissions via e-mail, phone, fax or other will no longer be accepted. For more information e-mail webteam@juneauempire.com.

Glaciologist to lecture on glacial loss, rebound in Southeast
JUNEAU - Roman Motyka, a world renowned glaciologist and professor, will present a lecture on "The Glaciers of Southeast Alaska: Ice Loss, Glacier Rebound, and Sea Level Rise" on Wednesday, Jan. 20 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Thunder Mountain High School auditorium.

SnowTRAC inviting new members for Fairbanks region
ANCHORAGE - The Division of Parks and Outdoors Recreation is inviting interested parties to apply for a vacancy on the Snowmobile Trail Advisory Council (SnowTRAC). The current vacancy available is for the Interior/Fairbanks Region.

Coast Guard releases quarterly publication
ANCHORAGE - The Coast Guard Seventeenth District external affairs office has announced the release of the Winter 2009 edition of its quarterly online publication, the Alaska Bear.

Biologist to lecture on historic Arctic, then versus now
Ted Merrell, a local retired fish biologist, will host a lecture Saturday on what he calls the "early days" - days before statehood, before oil drilling in the Arctic and before snowmobiles were the norm in native Alaskan villages.

Winter excursion in the Grandchild Peaks
Saturday morning dawned clear and cold on the first day of 2010. The view of the full moon on the drive to the Valley was glorious, and seemed a sign of good things to come. The four of us parked at the end of the Montana Creek Road and made final preparations for the hike to Grandchild Peaks, a group of mountains named for the grandchildren of Kim and Barb Turley, founders of the Juneau Alpine Club.

Audubon Christmas bird count reveals new and repeat visitors
Thirty-six birders participated in this year's Christmas bird count held in December in the Juneau area. Given the cold weather leading up to the count, the tallied report shows a "respectable" 72 species of birds counted during the day and more than 10,000 birds overall.

Beach ravens make for first-class entertainment near Crow Point
So far, it's been a strange winter, with cold snaps alternating between rain and sleet, but very little snow, except at the higher elevations. This makes it hard for Parks and Recreation hikers (who are not extremists) to choose a reasonable Wednesday or Saturday expedition. One hike had us hobbling over ice-crusted, deep boot tracks, where previous walkers had left their mark. Another found us slithering over ice in four inches of water for altogether too long. High winds forced hikers to change their route and even to go home early one day.

New plan drafted for bears in Rockies, Cascades
BILLINGS, Mont. - Wildlife officials from the United States and Canada plan to encourage conservation groups to buy key parcels of grizzly bear habitat in order to gauge how climate change is affecting them.

State title contenders set to square off
Undefeated Juneau-Douglas hasn't played in a tight game yet this season, a trend that's not expected to continue as Southeast Region archrival Ketchikan treks to Juneau for a showdown between two of Alaska's premier girls' basketball programs.

Bears vs. Kings: SE rivalry renewed
While it's certainly not make-or-break time for the 5-5 Juneau-Douglas boy's basketball team this weekend at Ketchikan, it's still a big weekend for both the Crimson Bears and the Kings.

Sports in Juneau
 Beginning Jan. 1, Sports In Juneau information must be submitted online at http://calendar.juneauempire.com. Submissions via e-mail, phone, fax or other will no longer be accepted. For more information e-mail webteam@juneauempire.com

Bears stalking sixth straight win
The Juneau-Douglas hockey team looks to win its sixth game in a row as the Crimson Bears open a stretch of four games in four days at Treadwell Arena tonight against Bartlett.

Sports in Juneau
 Beginning Jan. 1, Sports In Juneau information must be submitted online at http://calendar.juneauempire.com. Submissions via e-mail, phone, fax or other will no longer be accepted. For more information e-mail webteam@juneauempire.com

Parnell pushes changes to energy tax
Gov. Sean Parnell said Thursday that he wants to give oil and gas companies greater incentives to do business in the state, a plan he says will boost production and create potentially hundreds of new jobs for Alaskans.

Alaskan survives Haiti quake
MIAMI - It took Christa Brelsford's brother and their friends nearly an hour and a half to dig her from the debris after Haiti's powerful quake, her legs trapped by rubble when a building collapsed. But Brelsford is glad to be alive, even though her right leg had to be amputated below the knee.